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Hello from Virginia

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8Ton

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Hello, I run a small farm in Central Virginia with my family. This is our second year raising tobacco along with pigs,chickens,ducks, and cattle to sell at local farmers' markets. I've been a long time cigar and pipe lover and first tried raising tobacco when I was just 18 years old. Here's a photo of the 57 plants we raised last season. We've had a hard time with starts this year and lost at least 3/4 of the 100 trays we tried to seed. We now think it was because of tainted compost that we used to mix the seed starting mix. I am joining here to learn more about raising tobacco and to hopefully find someone to buy starts from for this season. Thanks!
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Jitterbugdude

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Welcome. Whereabouts in Central Virginny are you? I'll be retiring to someplace near Gordonsville or farther south near N/ Carolina in a few years.
What kind of tobacco are you growing?
 

FmGrowit

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Welcome to the forum. I had a horrible time with a new starter mix only to find out it contained urea. I don't know, but if you raise all them critters and the compost isn't composted good enough, it might have urea in it naturally. I could be 100% wrong...it's just a guess.
 

8Ton

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Thanks for the welcome!
I am in Nelson County south of Charlottesville. Last year I grew KY burley, Negro, White Mammoth, Hungarian Baiano, and Rot Front. I got everything in super late, and had JUST enough time for most of them to ripen before the first frost. This year we have some surviving Goose Creek Dark, a few Japan 8, and some Stolac.
In our potting mix we used two different brands of compost (our critters free range, direct depositing their litter onto the fields). The plants that got the compost made from restaurant waste grew fine. Most trays however got the compost made with cow manure. The plants sprouted, turned yellow and stopped growing. I suspect that the cows had been fed hay treated with "Graze-on" or some other herbicide that passed through.
 

Michibacy

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Hello, I run a small farm in Central Virginia with my family. This is our second year raising tobacco along with pigs,chickens,ducks, and cattle to sell at local farmers' markets. I've been a long time cigar and pipe lover and first tried raising tobacco when I was just 18 years old. Here's a photo of the 57 plants we raised last season. We've had a hard time with starts this year and lost at least 3/4 of the 100 trays we tried to seed. We now think it was because of tainted compost that we used to mix the seed starting mix. I am joining here to learn more about raising tobacco and to hopefully find someone to buy starts from for this season. Thanks!
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Welcome aboard, you'll love this place. I've been here and there, off the forum for quite a bit but this is still my "tobacco home" as it were.


Welcome to the forum. I had a horrible time with a new starter mix only to find out it contained urea. I don't know, but if you raise all them critters and the compost isn't composted good enough, it might have urea in it naturally. I could be 100% wrong...it's just a guess.
FmGrowit, what brand did you use? I had a horrible experience 2 years in a row now with Burpee "Seed Starting Mix" that wasn't even soil. I'm not sure which chemicals are in it, but I know for a fact it has little to no nutrition that is required at early stages of seedling development. I did a Deep Culture NPK test on mine and came out with anywhere between .02 % to 0.1% available NPK, and less than 1% available NPK after using my microbial inoculate to "digest" any available nutrients in the "mix".
 

wrapper

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Thanks for the welcome!
I am in Nelson County south of Charlottesville. Last year I grew KY burley, Negro, White Mammoth, Hungarian Baiano, and Rot Front. I got everything in super late, and had JUST enough time for most of them to ripen before the first frost. This year we have some surviving Goose Creek Dark, a few Japan 8, and some Stolac.
In our potting mix we used two different brands of compost (our critters free range, direct depositing their litter onto the fields). The plants that got the compost made from restaurant waste grew fine. Most trays however got the compost made with cow manure. The plants sprouted, turned yellow and stopped growing. I suspect that the cows had been fed hay treated with "Graze-on" or some other herbicide that passed through.

Welcome 8Ton, from another newbie.
I strongly suspect that manure of any sort, but in particular cow manure, is far too rich for seedling trays. I would use zero animal manure in the trays. Just a good veggie compost mixed with fine soil and a little perlite. Rather dig well rotted manure into the beds in the autumn where you will plant out your seedlings in the spring. Happy growing!
 

8Ton

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Welcome 8Ton, from another newbie.
I strongly suspect that manure of any sort, but in particular cow manure, is far too rich for seedling trays. I would use zero animal manure in the trays. Just a good veggie compost mixed with fine soil and a little perlite. Rather dig well rotted manure into the beds in the autumn where you will plant out your seedlings in the spring. Happy growing!

Yes, just spoke with an extension agent that's been guiding me along from a few counties over. I explained my situation and he said he thought our starting mix was too high in nitrogen and that's why they didn't thrive. Beginner mistake, still a lot to learn.
 

Jitterbugdude

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but I know for a fact it has little to no nutrition that is required at early stages of seedling development..

Seeds do not need any nutrients until their first true set of leaves. Everything they need is in the seed itself. I think a lot of problems arise from people thinking they need to fertilize the hell out of everything.
 

Michibacy

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Seeds do not need any nutrients until their first true set of leaves. Everything they need is in the seed itself. I think a lot of problems arise from people thinking they need to fertilize the hell out of everything.

I should've phrased differently, my mistake :rolleyes: All my plants died after growing their first set of leaves.
 

deluxestogie

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Welcome to the forum. I'm from just below Blacksburg. I grow for cigars and pipe blending. I've found that "simple" usually works. My starting mix is ~2/3 Miracle-Gro peat, ~1/6 Perlite and ~1/6 Vermiculite. The Miracle-Gro peat contains some slow release fertilizer. I add no further nutrients while the seedlings are in the trays. The planting beds get Black Kow composted manure (N:p:K 0.5:0.5:0.5, not the 0.05:0.05:0.05 crap most commonly sold) typically every other year.

All the processes get easier with successive grows. Your first grow looks like it went well.

PM BigBonner to see if he still has field-ready transplants for sale, if you need more plants for this year.

Bob
 

8Ton

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Welcome to the forum. I'm from just below Blacksburg. I grow for cigars and pipe blending. I've found that "simple" usually works. My starting mix is ~2/3 Miracle-Gro peat, ~1/6 Perlite and ~1/6 Vermiculite. The Miracle-Gro peat contains some slow release fertilizer. I add no further nutrients while the seedlings are in the trays. The planting beds get Black Kow composted manure (N:p:K 0.5:0.5:0.5, not the 0.05:0.05:0.05 crap most commonly sold) typically every other year.

All the processes get easier with successive grows. Your first grow looks like it went well.

PM BigBonner to see if he still has field-ready transplants for sale, if you need more plants for this year.

Bob



Thank you. I've got some transplants on the way from BigBonner, should be here Fri/Sat. I set the few trays I did have yesterday evening and today. They already look better than they did in the trays.

Thanks to everyone else for the welcome!
 
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